The OCC pays tribute to Alwyn Uys

Alwyn Uys will be competing in his third Outeniqua Cycle Challenge in 2019.

In June this year, he became the first South African paraplegic to complete an Ironman Race. He also won two gold medals at the 2018 SA Para-cycling and competed at the 2017 Para-Cycling World Cup.

“My strength came from my brokenness. I have found power in my pain,” he is quoted as saying on his website.

Prior to his accident, Alwyn represented Maties and The Sharks on the rugby field. He graduated with a B.Comm Logistics while at Stellenbosch University, and later, an Honours Degree in Financial Management from UNISA.

“Maybe, just maybe, everything of my past was preparing me for this life I am living now, disabled yes, but only physically.”

In 2014 he nearly lost his life in a motor vehicle accident, breaking his back at T8 and leaving him paralysed from the waist down.

“I thought life as I knew it was over as all my dreams and aspirations got shattered in mere seconds as my car left the road, flying into the abyss of broken dreams and a life trapped in a wheelchair”.

He remembers waking up at the side of the road in excruciating pain. His vision was blurry, but he could make out someone standing over him, reassuring him. He tried to get up, but there was no response from his legs.

“It begs the question, how could surviving this crash be any kind of mercy? It made me ask myself, where is my limit?”

Yet four years later he wheeled onto the red carpet at the Durban Ironman in his racing wheelchair having made history.

Alwyn loves sport and the outdoors. He competes in the OCC to connect with his fellow athletes. He is passionate about the growth of disabled sport and strives to be an inspiration to others to enjoy life and live a purposeful life in spite of their circumstance.

Today he is involved in the family fruit export business.

“I realized that to fully embrace this new life and everything that it held for me, I had to let go of my past, of what happened to me and leap into the unknown of this new life, and what a life it has proven to be.”

Photo Credit: Estvan Vermeulen.

The Outeniqua Cycle Challenge

The 17’Th OCC, a wheelchair race which attracts athletes from all over the world, will take place in George on Saturday 14 September 2019!

A wheelchair race exclusively for disabled athletes!

And – every year it is getting bigger and better! The number of entries has increased dramatically, with disabled athletes and other persons in wheelchairs flocking to this annual event.

The Challenge is not only unique as being the first and only event exclusively for the disabled in South Africa, but it is staged in the picturesque town of George, in the heart of the spectacular Garden Route in the Western Cape, situated at the foot of the splendour of the Outeniqua Mountains.

Athletes in racing wheelchairs, adapted bicycles, handcycles, basketball chairs, and ordinary wheelchairs have made this into the premier sporting event for the disabled on the South African sporting calendar. It undoubtedly has the potential to develop into one of the best events of its kind in the world!

Apart from the George Municipality & George Business Chamber, Lancewood and the Department of Cultural Affairs & Sport is supporting the event. Halfway Toyota is the venue host for the event.